Abstract:
A plasma is produced in a treatment space (58) by diffusing a plasma gas at atmospheric pressure and subjecting it to an electric field created by two metallic electrodes (54,56) separated by a dielectric material (64), a precursor material is mixed with the plasma, and a substrate film or web (14) is coated by vapor deposition of the vaporized substance at atmospheric pressure in the plasma field. The deposited precursor is cured by electron-beam , infrared-light, visible-light, or ultraviolet-light radiation, as most appropriate for the particular material being deposited. Plasma pre-treatment and post-treatment steps are used to enhance the properties of the resulting coated products. Similar results are obtained by atomizing and spraying the liquid precursor in the plasma field.
Abstract:
A release agent is flash evaporated and deposited onto a support substrate (64) under conventional vapor-deposition conditions and a conductive metal oxide, such as ITO, is subsequently sputtered or deposited by reactive electron beam onto the resulting release layer (60) in the same process chamber (10) to form a very thin film of conductive material (62). The resulting multilayer product is separated from the support substrate (64), crushed to brake up the metal-oxide film into flakes (70), and heated or mixed in a solvent to separate the soluble release layer (60) from the metallic flakes (70). Thus, by judiciously controlling the deposition of the ITO on the release layer, transparent flakes (70) may be obtained with the desired optical and physical characteristics.
Abstract:
A composite multi-layer barrier is produced by first vapor depositing a barrier (30,32) under vacuum over a substrate of interest (14) and then depositing an additional barrier at atmospheric pressure in a preferably thermoplastic layer (34). The resulting multi-layer barrier is then used to coat an article of interest (40) in a lamination process wherein the thermoplastic layer (34) is fused onto itself and the surface of the article. The vacuum-deposited barrier may consists of a first leveling polymer layer (46) followed by an inorganic barrier material (30) sputtered over the leveling layer and of an additional polymeric layer (32) flash evaporated, deposited, and cured under vacuum. The thermoplastic polymeric layer (34) is then deposited by extrusion, drawdown or roll coating at atmospheric pressure. The resulting multi-layer barrier may be stacked using the thermoplastic layer as bonding agent. Nano-particles (36) may be included in the thermoplastic layer to improve the barrier properties of the structure. A desiccant material may also be included or added as a separate layer (62).
Abstract:
A porous substrate (12) is pretreated in a plasma field (20) and a functionalizing monomer is immediately flash-evaporated (22), deposited and cured (24) over the porous substrate in a vacuum-deposition chamber (10). By judiciously controlling the process so that the resulting polymer coating adheres to the surface of individual fibers in ultra-thin layers (approximately 0.02-3.O micrometers) that do not extend across the pores in the material, the porosity of the porous substrate (12) is essentially unaffected while the fibers and the final product acquire the desired functionality. The resulting polymer layer is also used to improve the adherence and durability of metallic and ceramic coatings.
Abstract:
An electroluminescent light-emitting device is manufactured in a semi-continuous process (80, 40, 64) using vapor deposition technology to reduce the thickness of the dielectric layers (72, 52). The phosphor (34), dielectric (52) and electrode (58) layers are deposited sequentially on a flexible web substrate (30), preferably PET (14) coated with conductive ITO (12), which is passed through the deposition sections (74, 32, 54, 82, 84) on a continuous basis. By depositing the dielectric layers in vacuum (50), very thin layers are possible, which yields increased transparency and electrical capacitance. Accordingly the resulting multi-layer structure is suitable for the manufacture of large-area EL devices.
Abstract:
A coated porous sheet material comprising a gas permeable sheet material selected from the group consisting of flash spun plexifilamentary nonwoven sheet, spunbonded- film--spunbonded composite sheet, spun-laced polyester/wood pulp composite sheet and paper and a polymeric coating on at least one side thereof, wherein the permeability of the coated sheet material is substantially equivalent to the permeability of an equivalent sheet material without the coating. The coated porous sheet material is suitable for use in heat sealable packages.
Abstract:
A porous substrate (12) is pretreated in a plasma field (20) and a functionalizing monomer is immediately flash-evaporated (22), deposited and cured (24) over the porous substrate in a vacuum-deposition chamber (10). By judiciously controlling the process so that the resulting polymer coating adheres to the surface of individual fibers in ultra-thin layers (approximately 0.02-3.O micrometers) that do not extend across the pores in the material, the porosity of the porous substrate (12) is essentially unaffected while the fibers and the final product acquire the desired functionality. The resulting polymer layer is also used to improve the adherence and durability of metallic and ceramic coatings.
Abstract:
A plasma is produced in a treatment space (58) by diffusing a plasma gas at atmospheric pressure and subjecting it to an electric field created by two metallic electrodes (54, 56) separated by a dielectric material, a vapor precursor is mixed (52) with the plasma, and a substrate material (14) is coated by vapor deposition of the vaporized substance at atmospheric pressure in the plasma field. The use of vaporized silicon-based materials, fluorine-based materials, chlorine-based materials, and organo-metallic complex materials enables the manufacture of coated substrates with improved properties with regard to moisture-barrier, oxygen-barrier, hardness, scratch- and abrasion-resistance, chemical-resistance, low-friction, hydrophobic and/or oleophobic, hydrophilic, biocide and/or antibacterial, and electrostatic-dissipative/conductive characteristics.